"This is how all Asian characters and all actors of any race, color, gender should be portrayed."

At one point in time, most teenagers believe that their parents are keeping secrets from them. But for the kids on Marvel’s Runaways, it turns out that their moms and dads have something a bit more sinister up their sleeve than just old embarrassing college pics or a surprise birthday gift.

The teens at the center of the new Hulu show, an adaption of the wildly popular comic book series with the same name, accidentally discover what really happens during their parents’ charity organization meeting: some good ol’ human sacrifice. While the kids are unsure about all the pieces to their guardians’ mysterious (and deadly) shenanigans, they know it’s not good.

Lyrica Okano plays Nico Minoru on the superhero television show, the de facto goth kid in the group. The death of her older sister Amy a few years prior is also what seemingly caused a rift within the group, who had been distant from one another up until meeting up for the first time in a while during the show’s pilot. And while she may come off as the most stand-offish of the six teens, she arguably functions as the heart of the gaggle. Nico struggles with both feeling like she’s living in the shadow of her beloved sibling and missing her at a level that the others simply cannot comprehend. Dabbling in Wicca, Nico practices a ritual at the beach (yes, very The Craft) during the first episode in which she hopes to be able to make some sort of contact with Amy, eventually breaking down into a puddle of tears and frustration as the grief of losing her sisters washes over her.

Lyrica didn’t know the exact details about the role when she found out about the audition, being that Marvel is extremely secretive about things like casting and filming locations. She was told that the role was originally labeled as “Nancy,” but she did know that it was for a Japanese-American superhero. A quick Google search later led her to deduce that it was likely for the character Nico since there’s still (unfortunately) so few heroes that fit this description. And while she wasn’t familiar with the Runaways comics per se, she’s been a longtime fan of the Marvel movies including Iron Man and decided to pick up a copy pre-audition.

“I felt like this weird electric charge of positivity or whatever when I went into the room for Marvel. And this usually doesn't happen because I always get really nervous when I audition,” Lyrica told Teen Vogue. “But for some reason, with this part, I felt like I knew who Nico was and I knew what I wanted to do with her. And I had choices that I wanted to make for her already.”

And Nico is such a breath of fresh air when it comes to the typical portrayal of Asian-American characters on the screen. She’s the goth kid with killer, dark eye makeup. When we typically think of witches in pop culture, there’s an overwhelming number of white ones: Sabrina, the Charmed sisters, Hermione. Nico expands what our idea of the archetype, something that’s sure to cast a spell over Asian-American audiences. On top of that, Nico defies her parents, subverting the stereotype of the obedient, studious Asian-American high schooler.

“For Nico, I just feel like I'm on cloud nine because I get to play her. She's so complicated and this is how all Asian characters and all actors of any race, color, gender should be portrayed as,” Lyrica said. “This has been such a wonderful opportunity to play such a multi-dimensional character. Underneath the façade of being goth and being isolated away from her parents and her friends, she's really, really vulnerable inside, too. And I don't know, I think this is huge for TV to see a character like Nico who can be both things at once.”

In fact, the character reminded Lyrica of her best friend in middle school who was a Japanese-American Wiccan who would carry around her Book of Shadows everywhere she went. The friend was a big inspiration for Lyrica, who talked to her constantly. She even sent the actress packages of Wicca books and her very own Book of Shadows when she was out in Los Angeles filming.

Lyrica was also particularly excited to work with showrunners Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage as they translated the Marvel comic onto the small screen. Josh is no stranger to crafting interpersonal drama between teens and their parents, having helmed classics in the genre including The O.C. and Gossip Girl. And while this technically is a show about teens that have superpowers, it’s also very much so one about budding adolescence and growing up, realizing that your parents aren’t as perfect as you might have thought as a kid. While it’s easy to write the parents off in the show as evil from just hearing the premise, Josh and Stephanie have helped make it more about evaluating their decisions and the sort of gray area that they navigate.

So what happens when Nico and the rest of her friends finally confront the very people that raised them? You’ll have to watch to the end of the season to find out. However, the experience enough has really bonded the squad of young actors. Clearly, banding together to take a fight to your parents is quite the team building exercise. And Lyrica and her castmates are just as close in real life too.

“I didn't know any of them beforehand at all,” Lyrica said. “[But] I just felt like this was the right group of people to be working on this with. And we all somehow just got along from the very start. Then we've always just stayed in contact ever since. I'm best friends with all of them right now.”

Seems like the best case scenario when your parents turn out to be a little evil.